Monday, July 8, 2013

The Surprise Inside

Every year, a hanging fuchsia plant is a summer fixture at 3 Fates. It's a must for me...partly because the flowers look beautiful, like a woman wearing a billowy dress, but mostly because the hummingbirds are attracted to it.

Yes, I'm the Crazy Bird Lady and I wear my title proudly.

Unbeknownst to me, another type of bird, a non-nectar eating species, had set it sights on my fuchsia. After a week trip to Maine, I discovered something odd in the middle of plant... it was a mess of ...well, stuff. Nesting stuff?

Stuff in the middle...that the heck....

But surely, I thought to myself, no bird would be bold enough to construct a nest right in the middle of a hanging plant. Seriously. So I scoffed the idea and started to pick the material out...only to confirm the crazy idea... viola! Eggs.

This little mystery bird had made a dome-like nest in my fuchsia.

After brief glimpses of tiny red-brownish dart shooting out of the nest (you can only see her beady eyes when she is sitting in the protective fuchsia cave), and some research, I finally came to the conclusion that she had to be Carolina Wren.

Of course I'm thrilled that my fuchsia has become such a bird hub! The multi-purpose mini-ecosystem!